Maintain Safe Access to West Matheson Hammock Park for Everyone!

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Opinion piece

Rarely does a large group of citizens beg the local authorities not to spend $5 million on a project, yet here is a petition doing exactly that.  It concerns West Matheson Hammock Park, a lovely, unspoilt delight of nature that lies within the boundaries of Coral Gables.

The petition was necessary because since the elections, the new Mayor of Miami-Dade, the new Commissioner of District 7 and the Director of Miami-Dade Parks Department have ignored all questions emailed to them by concerned users of the park. A request for information has been ignored and it has proved necessary to file a lawsuit just to see the public documents relating to their planned changes to the park access. Official communication has been limited to a notice board at the park entrance that is riddled with contradictions.

These officials must all consider it reasonable to expect the many handicapped and elderly, who currently drive safely into the park every morning via the north gate, to instead walk two thirds of a mile on a shaded, elevated boardwalk without handrails and covered in wet leaves. Oh yeah, they will have to watch out for the dogs and speeding bicycles too. The Parks Department are setting the general public up for years of life changing accidents and personal injury claims. Their proposed mitigation of providing dawn until dusk golf cart taxi services is laughable.

They have stated that the entire 85 acre park will have to be shut for months later this year while they work in a little corner of this large area. This is because they intend to build on Environmentally Endangered Land so they consider that installing temporary fencing around the work site would be too damaging to the environment. Hold on, if that is the case, then isn’t construction of a third of a mile long, 12 foot wide, concrete piled boardwalk too damaging?

Last year a DERM surveyor observed the damage that the Parks Department surveyors had caused to the rare plant life along the nature trail, and they were only wielding theodolites. If the heavy construction machinery is allowed to start work, that old Florida birding trail will never be the same again.

The Parks Department try to portray their project as a positive thing done in the public’s interest. Sadly the truth is that they have yielded to political lobbying by a few connected representatives of the Hammock Lakes Home Owner’s Association who would like to stop any non-resident cars from entering into their semi-gated community.  They seized on the opportunity of the pandemic to lobby the local commissioner and mayor, requesting that the primary access gate into this, the oldest park in Miami-Dade, be kept closed even if it is on a public street. Coral Gables has also kindly installed “no parking” signs on all the public swale around the entrance gate, despite a supposed moratorium on such signage since 2016.

It appears that the Miami-Dade Parks Department Director has forgotten the fluffy mission statements about seniors and people with disabilities, nature preserves and environmental restoration efforts. The newly elected politicians don’t seem to feel strongly about these issues either.

Please sign the petition to support the people who want to ensure that this lovely park can be enjoyed by all and preserved for future generations. If you have any better ideas of where to spend the spare $5 million please let the Mayor know.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION


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